Daniela Arias Ortiz

Reservoir and Completions Engineer

[email protected]

Daniela Arias Ortiz works with ResFrac as a reservoir and completions engineer at ResFrac, focusing on reservoir data analysis, improving workflows, and customer support.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the National University of Colombia in 2017. Her curiosity for unconventional reservoirs took her to Saudi Arabia in 2018, where she pursued her Master’s and PhD at KAUST University. There, she dove deep into understanding flow behavior in hydraulically fractured shale wells, the impact of hydraulic fracture geometry on well productivity, and forecasting field production from shale reservoirs.

When she’s not solving reservoir puzzles, Daniela enjoys live music, trying new foods, and staying active. You can often find her climbing, hiking, doing CrossFit, or practicing aerial silks. Although she doesn’t dive, Daniela enjoys snorkeling and exploring the underwater world. She’s also a coffee enthusiast who loves traveling, especially when it involves exploring new cultures!

Daniela's posts

Interesting Papers from the 2026 SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference (HFTC)

The 2026 HFTC included 50+ technical paper presentations, a special session highlighting papers from the American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA), and a dynamic opening session featuring the Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, and a diverse panel discussion with representatives from Chevron, Exxon, US Department of Energy, and Colorado School of Mines.

Production impact of horizontal fractures

At the 2025 SPE International Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference, we (Dontsov, Zoback, McClure, and Fowler) presented “Hydraulic Fracture Propagation Along Bedding Planes Might Be More Prevalent Than We Think” (SPE-226637). The paper reviewed case studies with evidence of horizontal or bedding plane fractures from microseismic, fiber optics, core observations, and casing deformation.

Testing the new Kryvenko model for proppant washout

What controls proppant placement during hydraulic fracturing? As described in Chapter 8 from McClure et al. (2025), ResFrac incorporates a variety of physical processes – viscous drag, gravitational settling, hindered settling, clustered settling, bed slumping, and more. In addition, ResFrac accounts for the complex physics associated with proppant flowing out of the wellbore (Dontsov, 2023; Ponners et al., 2025).